Motorized surgical handpieces are well-known in the art. Such motorized surgical handpieces usually include various kinds of cutting instruments. Some surgical procedures require that the area whereat surgery is occurring to be periodically flushed with a saline solution and a suction apparatus employed to remove the saline solution along with detritus material freed during the cutting procedure. Some surgical procedures employ a surgical opening that is too small for multiple instruments to be present at the surgical site at one time. While saline solution can be conveniently delivered to the area, removal of the saline solution and the detritus material is complicated by the presence of the surgeon's tool in the surgical area. Thus, there exists a need to provide a solution to the aforesaid problem.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece having a motorized driven shaft configured to drive a surgical tool and an integrated suction control mechanism for opening and closing a connection to a suction source so as to, respectively, connect suction to a passageway through the surgical handpiece and tool when in one position and blocking suction to the passageway and tool when in another position.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, which can be conveniently gripped by a single hand of the hand of a user and be easily operable and controlled in a manner suitable to the user.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein the drive mechanism includes in a housing of the surgical handpiece a stator affixed to the housing with a rotor being radially aligned with the stator so that electrical energization of the stator will effect a rotation of the rotor and a hollow driven shaft affiliated with the rotor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein the passageway extends centrally through the driven shaft and is connectable through a sealed connection to a central passageway in a tool connected thereto and having an implement rotary driven by the driven shaft of the motor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein one end of the driven shaft includes a tool chucking means adapted to effect a rotary driving of the implement in a tool connected therewith.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein the tool chucking means includes a quick connect and a quick release mechanism for quickly coupling and decoupling the tool from the driven shaft.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein the suction control mechanism includes a valve body internally of the surgical handpiece housing and controllable between open and closed positions by a control member mounted externally of the surgical handpiece housing and operable by one or more digits of the user's hand holding the surgical handpiece.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, wherein the surgical handpiece housing includes a yieldable stop mechanism for holding the tool in the housing while decoupled from the driven shaft so that the handpiece can be conveniently manipulated with the decoupled tool therein to facilitate removal and replacement with another tool.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a surgical handpiece, as aforesaid, which is easy to operate and is virtually free of maintenance.